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Sight Like an Alligator, Swim Like a Fish

Pro triathlete Matt Lieto's swim tips will help you transition from the comfort of lane lines to the open water.

by Matt Lieto

As both seasoned and rookie triathletes know, the swim can be one of the most intimidating segments of an IRONMAN. Most athletes simply don't have the same confidence in their open-water swimming as they do in cycling and running. We ride our bikes and and run in similar conditions that we experience on race day, but it's rare to feel that same familiarity when swimming.

The biggest difference between a training day and race day (besides the open water, your wetsuit and 2000 of your friends) is that you don’t get a black line to follow the entire way. This is where preparing for race conditions—tenet number one of the IRONMAN SwimSmart initiative—comes in. Sighting (lifting your head to see where you're going) is a big part of this key preparation, as it's one of the skills that makes the biggest difference between a comfortable and efficient experience and an anxiety-ridden and hectic one.

Follow these sighting tips as you prepare for your next IRONMAN.

Press to sight: A problem many people have with sighting is timing it properly with your stroke. If you try and sight when you have no stability in your stroke, your hips will drop and you'll lose momentum. To help keep your momentum and balance, you want to "press to sight."

How do you do that? When you are reaching to take a pull with your breathing side arm, just when you are initiating your stroke, and dig your fingers in, pushing down to create stability lifting your eyes up to sight. The goal is not to bring your head out of the water, as in the photo below, but to barely bring your eyes out (like an alligator) and then continue your breath, repeating until you have sighted adequately. (The below photo shows an example of poor sighting, with the entire head coming out of the water, causing the hips to drop.)

Take pictures: Another common mistake while sighting is swimming with your head up until you find your bearings. This is tiring and inefficient, so try to take mental pictures instead. Use your alligator eyes (see above photo for an example) to take a peek, take a peek, take a peek, never breaking your stroke rhythm.

While you are taking these little peeks, or "pictures," you should be compiling them in your head to make a big picture of what's ahead of you. Now that you have the big picture in your head, take a few more peeks and then adjust. The key here is not to make big adjustments in between these sights, but very small movements to get you back on track.

Sight big not small: Sighting is difficult because our eyes are at water level and we are looking ahead for another athlete or buoy in the distance that isn’t very tall off of the water. To make this easier, sight BIG. Try to find a landmark that lines up behind the key marks on the course—think turn buoys (and thanks to IRONMAN's SwimSmart initiative, there are more of them now) or the finish chute. If there is a mountain peak, look for that. If there is a large dock or building, look for that. By looking for something big during your swim you will have to look around less and make fewer adjustments on your way through the course.

Practice in the pool: We spend most of our time training in a pool so we might as well work on aspects of sighting while we're there. When I am doing a long interval I will take every fourth lap to spend a few strokes working on sighting. I like to look up to the deck and sight off my water bottle. I don’t swim head-up. I take three or four little pictures until I can hone in on something specific on my bottle like the logo, and then I move along with my swimming. What you want to focus on is keeping your rhythm the same when you’re sighting, just like your swimming. Remember, your rhythm should not change if you make sighting part of your stroke.

Pre-swim the course: Pre-swimming a course is the best way to make yourself more comfortable, especially if you’re anxious about this part of your big race. It's a great time to make sure your wetsuit is in working order, get familiar with the water temperature, and put your best foot forward to be able to sight effectively. If it is a one-loop IRONMAN swim, you likely won’t be able to swim the entire course. Get out there and look for the landmarks on the way out and on the finish stretch home. If it's a two-loop course, try to swim the entirety while finding the best way to sight big during your race.

Visit IRONMAN's SwimSmart page for more information on how to get more comfortable in the water.

IronmanLive host Matt Lieto finished third at IRONMAN 70.3 Hawaii in 2010 and 2011 and, in 2009, was fifth at IRONMAN Lake Placid.